Mars is shrinking bags of some of Britain’s favourite chocolate treats by up to 15% and Cadbury has indicated it could reduce the size of its products too.

The confectionery giants say size slashes are a response to rising production costs.

Mars has already started cutting packet sizes of Maltesers, M&Ms and Minstrels. A share bag of M&Ms is now 25g lighter, at 140g, while Minstrels and Revels packs have been trimmed by 10%.

Maltesers packets have been cut in size for the second time in a year.

In autumn, bags of Maltesers were reduced from 121g to 103g, and will now weigh just 93g, the Guardian reports.

But the customers will pay the same price as before.

Mars, which has a factory in Slough, Berkshire, says cuts are due to increasing in costs. A Mars spokesman told the Guardian: “We have been absorbing rising raw material and operational costs for some time, but the growing pressures mean that we can’t keep things as they are.

“Reducing the size of our products is not a decision that we take easily.”

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Prices of every day commodities have increased for UK customers since the Brexit vote, due to a slump in the pound’s value.

There is also increased demand for chocolate in countries like Brazil, Russia and China, while the Ivory Coast’s cocoa harvests have been less fruitful in recent years, according to MySupermarket. These factors combine to make chocolate more expensive to British customers.

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Cadbury warns it could reduce chocolate bar and bag sizes too, which it says would be necessary to avoid raising prices.

Glenn Caton, who is in charge of Cadbury in the UK, told the Guardian the Birmingham-based company will have to adapt once Britain leaves the EU.

In order for Britain to be the “home of chocolate manufacturing”, the company says it may have to pass Brexit's cost on to customers by raising prices or selling smaller products.

Mr Caton revealed Cadbury’s three wishes for Brexit Britain: A thriving UK economy, retaining free movement of goods and securing the status of EU nationals who are working and living in the UK. Around 50 different nationalities are employed at Cadbury’s development centre in Birmingham.

Prime Minister Theresa May intends to kick-start Britain’s move out of the EU by triggering Article 50 on Wednesday, March 29. Once the article is invoked, formal negotiations between the EU and Britain can begin. The UK is expected to leave the bloc within two years of that date.